She’d said she couldn’t go on the Christmas cruise with them. Fine, he’d told her. And it was fine. Rissa would bring Spencer, but they’d be married by then. No big deal. Cherry didn’t have a boyfriend, and Will and Lee hadn’t dated anyone in a while. Travis would fit right into his family the way he always had.

  If he didn’t feel so different inside his own skin, that would be fine. But that wasn’t Shay’s problem. He saw how busy Sweetspot was now, and the bigger shopping days of the year hadn’t even come yet.

  She’d been withdrawn since the Halloween party at her mom’s. Travis had tried to coax things out of her, but when Shay didn’t want to talk, she didn’t. She was stubborn and headstrong, which allowed her to ensure quality products for her shop, but made her somewhat intimidating and unapproachable in relationships.

  At the moment, she looked like she might cry, and Travis took a deep breath to attempt to tame some of the irritation still firing through him. She’d run down a dark alley to get away from him, and he’d followed her. He’d confronted her.

  It’s time, he told himself. He was one breath away from falling in love with her, and though he’d packed up everything he’d taken to the restaurant where they were supposed to meet that evening, he could still see it all laid out.

  The red roses, the jewelry box, the card. He’d tried to be romantic, and he’d come up with everything himself. Shay didn’t wear a lot of jewelry, but she did love a good bracelet, and he’d gotten her one that could hold tiny charms. He’d purchased a hiking boot and a cowboy hat for her two initial ones, and she could choose up to four more on her own.

  He’d scrawled a sentiment on the card, and he’d fully anticipated arriving early, getting set up, and then falling all the way in love with the woman once she arrived. As she walked toward him and saw everything he’d done for her, she’d forget about her inferiority complex toward his family, and she’d realize how much they belonged together.

  Perhaps Trav was too romantic.

  All of his own doubts would dry up when she kissed him. All of the worry he’d experienced over the past couple of weeks since Shay had started to retreat inside her shell would simply be gone. He wasn’t planning to propose tonight or anything, but the date had felt pivotal.

  And she hadn’t shown up. She hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts. For all he knew, she’d packed everything she’d owned and fled Sweet Water Falls. He hadn’t said that, but it was the main reason he’d gone to her house first, instead of coming to Sweetspot to see if she’d lost track of the time at work.

  Of course she had.

  In that moment, with Shay studying the ground, silent, and Travis’s question still bouncing around the rafters, he realized the woman was already in a very serious relationship. She was married to Sweetspot.

  “I have to go,” he said, his throat closing around the words.

  “Go?” Shay repeated.

  He brushed by her. “It’s already late, Shay. I waited at Harper’s for almost two hours.” Could she hear the desperation in his voice? The longing? The pure fury? He’d never been great at hiding his feelings.

  He paused with his hand on the doorknob, his back to her. “Just answer me with yes or no. Are you…do you…have your feelings changed since last time you ran away from me? Remember when you hid by the side of the house at Mama’s birthday party? You said you didn’t want to break-up.”

  Travis turned to face her, because if she didn’t want to be with him, she’d have to look him in the face and say it. “Has that changed? Just yes or no works.”

  Shay looked like a piece of taffy, first being pulled one way, and then streeeeetched the other. She rolled her neck and wiped one hand down her weary face. “I don’t know, Travis.”

  “You don’t know.” Something hardened inside of him. All of the blood rushing into his heart turned to cement, and he labored for breath. “Okay, great. That’s just fantastic. You know what, Shay? I’m done. You have yourself a good night.”

  With that, he tipped his hat to the woman he’d almost fallen in love with, and walked out. He made it to his truck before a horrible, horrendously loud yell ripped from his throat, and he made it all the way to the highway and out of town before his anger dissolved into anguish.

  “I’m not hungry,” he said, pushing the candied yams and mashed potatoes together on his plate.

  “That’s the definition of Thanksgiving dinner,” Clarissa said. “You come hungry.”

  “He hasn’t eaten much since last week,” Will said.

  Travis shot him a shut-your-mouth look. “Will made cowboy casserole for breakfast.”

  “What?” Rissa asked at the same time Lee’s head jerked up. “He did? And you guys just hogged it for yourselves?”

  “Travis,” Will said, clearly upset. He’d started it, and Travis would actually like a good fight, right here at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Then maybe he wouldn’t feel so hollow. So alone. So…lifeless.

  No, he hadn’t been eating much. What was the point? The work still got done. The Berthas got milked. The sun arced through the sky.

  “There’s tons left,” he said and he took a bite of his mixed-up mashed potatoes. He couldn’t taste anything. The sky didn’t even shine blue anymore. “C’mon over whenever.”

  Will growled beside him, and Lee actually put his fork down.

  “Don’t you dare stop eating,” Rissa said, her voice made of knives. Sharp ones. “Mama, Daddy, and I labored over this meal for hours. Eat. You too, Travis. Get eating.” She wore a missile in her expression. “Not hungry, my left foot. You show up hungry for Thanksgiving.”

  She tossed a look at her fiancé, and Spencer wisely nodded. Travis liked him a lot, and he was perfect for Clarissa. He had just enough fire to match her, but he quenched her when she got too raging hot. She brought out the passion in him too, and he’d started taking some mechanical classes to help the farm with their milk storage, refrigeration, and transportation.

  Cows still had to be milked on holidays, and Travis glanced at his phone to check the time. Maybe he could leave this meal a little bit early and cite the Berthas as the reason why. Mama and Rissa had no less than eight pies displayed on the sideboard, but all Travis could think about when he saw them was Shayla.

  Last night was her family’s pie night, and he’d been planning to attend with her. Well, before he’d broken up with her. He still hadn’t told anyone in his family about the break-up, and a sigh limped out of his mouth when he realized not even the Berthas could save him right now.

  “What is wrong with you?” Rissa asked, plenty of sharpness still in her voice.

  “Nothing,” he said, shooting a look at her. He shouldn’t have sat between her and Will. Too many eyes and they both had ears like a freaking wolf. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Has he been sighing like this a lot?” She looked past him to Will, who was totally going to sell him out. Travis couldn’t help his broken heart syndrome. He really couldn’t. It was a real condition too, and he knew it would only last a few weeks. That was what the website had said anyway.

  “Just a couple of times,” Will said, his eyes skating past Travis.

  “Traitor.”

  “You literally just told them about the cowboy casserole,” Will shot back. “You have been sighing all week. Once over your coffee, even though we weren’t out of cream. And last night? It was sigh-fest-city as we tried to watch a movie. I thought you might be having some sort of lung attack.”

  “Lung attack?” Travis repeated. “Come on. It wasn’t that bad.”

  “It was so bad,” Will said.

  “Where’s Shay?” Mama asked, driving the knife right through the fattest part of Travis’s heart. She, Daddy, and Lee all looked at him from across the table. Ford seemed to be the only one not holding his breath at the moment.

  “She’s in Beeville,” Travis said truthfully. “Her momma had a pie night last night.”

  “And you were…” Lee swallowed and flicked a look at Will. “Watching a movie with Will?”

  “There’s somethin’ wrong with my truck,” Travis said, his voice turning hard.

  “Shay has a truck,” Rissa pointed out. “And the farm is on the way to Beeville.”

  He glared at his sister, his pulse bouncing out of control. “She was already there, okay?” If this conversation continued for much longer, he would lose his mind. He picked up his plate as Mama opened her mouth again. “I’ve got to get back to the milking.”

  “No, you don’t,” Daddy said. “I put Chris on it for asking for every Sunday off.” He scooped up a bite of turkey and yams as if the conversation wasn’t about to explode.

  Travis continued to the sink anyway, and he nearly dropped the fine china into it. At the last second, he decided not to make a big scene and simply set the plate down into the sink. “I’m still leaving.”

  “She broke up with you,” Rissa said, also rising to her feet. All of the knives and jagged edges of her had softened. “Travis.”

  “No,” he barked at her. “She didn’t.” He shook his head, because he didn’t want to talk about this.

  “There’s banana cream pie,” Rissa said.

  “I’m not a woman,” Travis said as he folded his arms. “I’m not going to eat my feelings just because they’re coated in banana cream.”

  “First, rude,” Rissa said, throwing the words at him. “Second, something clearly happened with Shay.”

  “There’s nothin’ wrong with his truck,” Will said.

  “Will,” Travis yelled. “I’m so eating every last bit of that stupid cowboy casserole!”

  “Go ahead!” Will yelled back. “It’s not like I don’t know how to make more.”

  “This time, you better invite us,” Lee said, indicating him and Ford. “We just had lame bowls of cereal.”

  “You never invite us over for meals,” Will shot at Lee, and Travis basked in the higher energy of the farmhouse. This was the Cooper family. They fought. They yelled. They didn’t let anyone withdraw without calling them on every ticky-tacky thing.

  He’d let Shay get away with so much, and then he’d found her at work, with another man. His mind buzzed at him that she hadn’t cheated on him. Of course she hadn’t. That wasn’t Shay’s style.

  She was married to Sweetspot, and Travis wasn’t sure how to reconcile that between them.

  “What happened with Shay?” Rissa asked as she came closer.

  “Let it go, Riss,” Travis said.

  “I agree with Travis,” Spencer called from further down the table.

  He indicated the man, his eyebrows flying up as if to challenge his sister. But Clarissa wasn’t the type to let very much go. She wore an expression of love and compassion now, and that only made things worse.

  “Trav,” she said. “You two were so perfect together.”

  Will and Lee had stopped arguing, and Mama and Daddy just kept on eating. Travis had to get out of the farmhouse. Now.

  “I broke up with her,” he said, practically spitting the words. “Okay, Riss? Happy now?”

  “No,” she shot back. “Why’d you break up with her?”

  “Personal reasons,” he said, code for none of your business, little sister. “I have to go.”

  “Maybe you could use the dating app,” Ford said, and that made everyone stop everything. Even Daddy didn’t put another forkful of dark meat slathered in gravy in his mouth.

  “What?” Will asked, the word almost a gunshot it came out of his mouth so fast.

  “The dating app,” Ford said, glancing at his father and then Will. “That my daddy uses. He’s met a couple of women there.”

  “Ford,” Lee said in the single moment of calmness before the volcano erupted.

  “You’re using a dating app?” Will roared.

  “My word, son,” Mama said, pressing one hand to her chest. “That’s so dangerous.”

  “Lee,” Clarissa said, rushing toward him. “Who have you met? Have you been out with very many people?”

  The darkest look Travis had ever seen on his brother’s face filled the room, but all he could do was tip his head back and laugh.

  Daddy started bellowing at everyone to stop it! Leave Lee alone!

  “Travis, come sit down. You’re not leaving.” Daddy stood up, his chest heaving. “Rissa, enough questions. Will, not another word about trucks, movies, sighs, or apps.” He leaned into his fists on the table, and both Travis and Rissa returned to their seats.

  Just because he was thirty-seven years old didn’t mean Travis wanted the wrath of his father to rain down on him. “Sorry, Daddy,” he said.

  “Chrissy, dating apps are totally safe,” Daddy said. “Lee doesn’t want to talk about it. Leave ‘im alone. Travis doesn’t want to talk about Shay. Leave ‘im alone. Will didn’t invite us to breakfast. Big dairy deal. It’s his casserole and his prerogative. Leave ‘im alone.” Daddy huffed out his breath and sat back down.

  “All y’all need to stay out of one another’s business. It’s exhausting.” He nodded to Travis. “Now, start bringin’ those pies over here, Trav. We can talk about the weather over dessert.”

  Silence filled the dining room and the farmhouse, the only punctuation in it Travis’s movements and the setting of pie plates on the table.

  Ford leaned closer to his father, who bent his head down to listen to the boy. “Is the weather code for somethin’, Daddy?”

  Travis couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing again, and thankfully, so did Will and Lee, who’d obviously heard Ford’s question too.

  It felt good to laugh, though Travis wasn’t nearly as happy as he’d been a week ago. Even with a quieter, more distant Shay in his life, Travis had been happier than he was now. He knew what love felt like, and he had to figure out how to get it back.

  Fast.

  He looked at Will and said, “Sorry I outed you about the cowboy casserole.”

  Will nodded and took a big piece of the banana cream pie. He pushed the plate toward Travis and extend a fork like it was an olive branch. “Sorry I said you’ve been all sighy and that your truck isn’t busted.”

  “Yeah, well, I shouldn’t expect you to lie for me.” Travis took the fork and glanced across the table to Lee. He’d never even considered that his brother would feel left out. “Sorry we didn’t invite you for breakfast, Lee.”

  His brother nodded, his face still holding plenty of clouds. “I’m sorry about Shay.”

  Travis bobbled his head, as it felt like it might come off at any moment. “Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

  “What are you gonna do to get her back?” Will asked.

  “I don’t know,” Travis said miserably. He looked back and forth between his brothers. “Any ideas?”

  “Yeah,” Lee said. “I’ve got a few.” He glanced at his son. “We’ll come over after the evening milking tonight, and we’ll brainstorm.”

  “I’m in,” Rissa said, and Travis swung his attention toward her. She laid her head against his bicep. “You two really are perfect together. You’ll get her back, I’m sure of it.”

  Travis wished he was as sure, but he simply accepted his sister’s confidence—and then dug into his banana cream pie.

  23

  Shayla boxed up the last of the shipments that needed to go out that evening. The transport driver would be here in ten minutes, and she wiped the sweat from her brow, pleased and proud she’d finished before he’d even arrived.

  Usually, Shay had to box like a crazy person while Greg loaded his truck with what she had ready. Once, he’d stayed to help her finish up the orders, which had put him behind for his next pick-up. She’d apologized profusely, and she’d made an internal promise not to do that to him again.

  He had a business to run too, and the holidays were just as busy for him as they were for retailers. Without the transport and shipping services, no one would be able to get their goods anywhere, and Shay didn’t want to make Greg’s life any harder than it needed to be.

  She didn’t want to do that to anyone, and her thoughts flowed to Travis Cooper. Of course. The man never truly left her mind, except maybe when she was in the deepest recesses of sleep. And sometimes not even then.

  A sigh came out of her mouth, and she reached up to tighten her already-knotted ponytail. The nervous habit annoyed her, but she couldn’t stop herself from doing it.

  The back door opened, and she turned that way, already stepping to open the garage door for Greg, who was early. Except it wasn’t the tall, dressed-in-gray transport driver.

  Her sister entered the packaging room, and Shay’s heart tumbled to the floor and then rebounded to the top of her skull. “Hey,” she said, her step only hitching slightly.

  She expected her husband, Jackson, to enter behind her, so shock coursed through her when Claudia said, “She’s here,” and Sam followed her inside.

  Shay paused and took in her brother and sister. “What are you guys doing here?” Her hands went back to her ponytail, and she told herself not to tighten it again.

  “Mom said you were super busy these days,” Claudia said. “So we came to see if we could help.” Her eyes scanned the packed and labeled boxes.

  “I just finished,” Shay said, her heart swelling with love. She opened her arms, and her siblings stepped into her for a three-way hug. “But thank you. Maybe we could go to dinner once they get picked up.”

  “I’m game,” Sam said. “Sharon made fish tonight, and the moment I found that out, I was like, oh, Shay needs some help in Sweet Water Falls.” He laughed as he pulled back. He always tried to cover the heavier moments with something light, but Shay saw the concern in his eyes. That, plus the fact that he’d left his wife and kids to drive all this way to see her, told Shay this was more of an intervention than a service project.

  A couple of pounds landed on the garage door, and that was Greg’s signal that he’d arrived. She should’ve known he wouldn’t just come in the back door. “Sure,” she said. “It doesn’t take Greg long to load up. We can go after that.”